Mnemophrenia

Throughout the film, Konstantinidou has her actors improvise their lines to lend authenticity to the characters and their interactions. What’s truly impressive about this is that it’s done while talking about heady, complex ideas such as self-actualization and consciousness, all while two of the narratives happen entirely within a character’s mind. The movie’s exposition organically comes throughout characters’ stories, such as Nick explaining the research to test subjects, as his the security cameras analyze the subjects’ speech and physical reactions. Or when Jeanette is relaying her experiences to the support group. By using these creative techniques, the film avoids any clunky dialogue where characters speak to each other but are just spoon-feeding the audience so they can get on with the action.

The performances throughout are captivatingly realistic as they share hopes, passions, and goodbyes. Seyfert and Wallace’s performances stand out, as they believably react to their surroundings. Berry and Sheffield convincingly convey emotion with only their voice and hand gestures. These choices immerse the viewer into the persona of each character, making the world more immersive.

“…seamlessly transports viewers into the world…”

The film is an introspective study of memory and technology. At times, it’s like putting together a 1000-piece puzzle – it will take a fair few visits to see the complete design. Beyond piecing the film together, re-watching Mnemophrenia depends on if you are a fan of the genre and its narrative about our relationship with technology. Due to its unconventional structure and subject matter, this is a very conditional film. If you love the ideas of memory from Ghost in the Shell, or the theory Deckard is a replicant from Blade Runner, then Mnemophrenia is definitely worth a watch, or several.

However, if these ideas do not appeal to you, and sci-fi is not in your regular pallet of cinema, a single viewing may suffice, as it is a film you’ll respect more than you enjoy. Mnemophrenia may be hard to navigate at times due to the shifting stories. Still, overall it creates an enveloping experience that easily appeals to fans of Black Mirror and would be really interesting to watch in VR, if that were an option.